写作的行为是一种乐观的行为。如果你觉得这无关紧要，你就不会费心去做。

"History is not the past—it is the method we have evolved of organizing our ignorance of the past."

I write to understand as much as to be understood.

Not necessarily your mother, or indeed mine, but, as it were, the ideal mother, somebody who doesn't care about your achievements. Unfortunately, most people are not our mothers. Most people make a strict correlation between how much time, and if you like, love -- not romantic love, though that may be something -- but love in general, respect --they are willing to accord us, that will be strictly defined by our position in the social hierarchy.

It takes a strong man to save himself, and a great man to save another.